Page 10 of Beneath The Truth
“That shot.You missed on purpose.I saw you adjust at the lastminute.Why?”
I swallowed the saliva pooling in my mouth and decided to take the safest exit from this situation.Lying.
“Cueslipped.”
His eyes narrowed on me.“You’re lying and you’re terrible at it, just like you’ve always been.”He reached up and pressed his thumb to my left eyebrow.“You get a twitchrighthere.”
Oh my God.Rhett Hennessy is touching me.And what’s more ...he knows my tell.Henoticedme!
The fifteen-year-old inside me did a terrible cartwheel at the realization.Okay, more of a round-off.With a tumble in the grass to finish.Whatever.
But outwardly, I was trapped in that green gaze until he decided to let me go—or until I came to mysenses.
I cleared my throat and sidestepped him.“Whatever you say, hotshot.I need anotherdrink.”
Focusing on putting one four-inch heel in front of the other without biting it, I escaped to the table and reached for the whiskey glass I’d left behind, interrupting my brother and the waitress.They both stared at me as I chugged thecontents.
I’d always wondered what it would feel like to have Rhett’s attention, and now I knew.In a word, it was ...unnerving.
“How’s the game going?”my brotherasked.
“Fine.”Keeping my answer short meant he couldn’t tell that I was lying.Heath wasn’t nearly as observant asRhett.
“Youwinning?”
Thanking the Lord that Heath obviously hadn’t been watching, I shrugged.“Iguess.”
He glanced toward Rhett and then back to me.“The sister I know and love doesn’t lose at pool.Ever.Even to RhettHennessy.”
I lowered the glass to the table and straightened my shoulders.“Like they say, thingschange.”
He nodded slowly.“That may be true about most things, Flounder.But you’re a pool shark and we bothknowit.”
Before I could respond, Heath’s attention jumped back to the waitress.I took another ten seconds to gather myself, also known asdrinking offensivelyin my mind, before I crossed the floor to face off against my formerobsession.
“You all right, Red?”Rhettasked.
“Don’t call me that.And I’ve never beenbetter.”
His gaze dipped to my feet and dragged up my body.“I can agree with thatstatement.”
Whoa.Who is this guy with the innuendo?A glance at his empty whiskey glass told me he was drinking heavily as well.Was this the booze talking?Or was Rhett Hennessy not just noticing me, butnoticingme?
Either way, I had to play it cool.Or at least pretend to play it cool, since it seemed I might fallshort.
“Your turn, hotshot.Better not miss, because I’ll clear the table next time,” I said, but my cocky attitudebackfired.
Rhett didn’t miss.He sank his balls and then the eight, ending the game almost as quickly as it started.He returned his cue to the rack and turned to face me, all traces of the earlier heat banked, his expressionshuttered.
“Gameover.”
What the hell justhappened?
7
Rhett
When you play with fire,you getburned.
